A FACTORY boss has today been jailed in connection with the horrific death of an Unsworth teenager.

Cameron Minshull, aged 16, was fatally injured in January 2013, when he got stuck in a lathe he was operating while working at Huntley Mount Engineering (HME) in Huntley Mount Road, Bury.

Police and the Health and Safety Executive investigated why the HME's bosses allowed an inexperienced apprentice to work a machine that had been deliberately been made less safe because a protective interlock had been disabled.

They also asked why Lime People Training Solutions Ltd (LPTS), which arranged the apprenticeship, did not do its bit in protecting Cameron.

After a three-day trial at Manchester Crown Court, a jury found West Yorkshire-based LPTS guilty of failing to ensure the health and safety of a person other than an employee last Thursday.

HME had previously admitted corporate manslaughter and its director Zaffar Hussain, aged 59, of Bridgefield Drive, Bury, and his son, HME supervisor Akbar Hussain, aged 36, of the same address, had previously admitted serious breaches of health and safety laws.

This afternoon. Judge David Stockdale QC jailed Zaffar Hussain for eight months and banned him from being a company director for ten years.

Akbar Hussain was given a four-month prison sentence suspended for a year, fined £3,000 and ordered to do 200 hours of unpaid work.

HME, which is now trading under a new name, was ordered to pay a £150,000 fine at the rate of £25,000 a year - all but £7,000 of its annual profits.

LPTS was fined £75,000, to be paid by September.

Judge Stockdale called the use of the unsafe machine: "Dangerous in the extreme" and added: "It was a state of affairs that under any circumstances should not have been possible."

HME had shown a reckless disregard for safety on a regular basis, employing inexperienced, young and low-paid staff to operate unsafe machinery, he added, and LPTS would have seen safety concerns at HME "had they bothered to take the trouble to check."

Cameron studied at Radcliffe Riverside High School and wanted to be an engineer.

He was delighted when he secured a role at the firm, which started on December 3, 2012, the court heard.

Judge Stockdale was told there had been an alarming catalogue of errors at HME that were identified during the probe into Cameron's death.

At the heart of the matter was a lock on the door of the machine which investigators said was deliberately removed from the lathe so workers could make changes while it was spinning at speeds of up to 2,000 revolutions a minute.

The court heard the practise is inherently unsafe and highly dangerous.

Investigators believe Cameron's sleeve was caught in the machine and violently pulled him towards it, leading to serious head injuries.

He was taken to hospital by air ambulance and did not recover from a cardiac arrest. He died two hours after the accident.

A probe revealed HME had no risk assessments for its machinery, allowed Cameron to wear unsuitable clothing while operating the machine, did not train him or other staff properly and operated an "endemic practise" of using defective machinery.

Prosecution counsel Bryan Cox said HME shunned two firms when they offered to repair the machines.

They argued that HME had shown a long-standing willingness to put safety over profit, with Zaffar and Akbar Hussain at the helm.

Some agencies, such as Connexions, had refused to send apprentices to HME due to safety concerns, but LPTS did not, The firm was criticised for not protecting Cameron as it did not ask HME for any evidence that the youngster would be kept safe.

Defence counsel Simon Antrobus said HME was extremely regretful for Cameron's death and the Hussains had expressed pain and anguish over the loss of a young man they felt highly of.

He added that the company had failed to recognise a safety issue related to the lathe, rather than deliberately breaching safety rules to cut corners and that there had previously never been a safety incident at HME.

Fighting back the tears during the hearing, Cameron mother, Joanne Hill described how her son's death had devastated her and her husband Anthony and had had a serious impact on siblings Charlie, Courtney and Millie.

She added: "Cameron was their hero. Millie will never know her older brother. She says she wants to go to heaven to see him. No four year old should ever have to say that.

"I dropped Cameron off at work that morning. When I went to collect him I was told by two police man that there was an accident.

"Zaffar Hussain has got to keep his son, but I have lost mine all because of carelessness."

Mrs Hill thanked investigators for their thorough probe and for the support they have given her.

She also thanked Families Against Corporate Killers (FACK) for their support.

Hilda Palmer, of FACK, said: "Every worker should be safe at work and come home alive and well, but especially our children who are young and inexperienced and need greater protection.”

"The truth is that good health and safety saves lives and money for employers while bad health and safety is a terrible burden on those killed or injured and made ill, and on their families.

"No-one should die simply for going to work to earn a living, and especially not a 16 year old with his whole life ahead of him.”